Senior Isil operative responsible for murder of Western journalists killed in Aleppo air strike

Amr al-Absi led the Mujahideen Shura Council and was responsible for some of
the group's worst atrocities

Photos have emerged apparently showing the corpse of Amr al-AbsiPhoto: SITE

By Louisa Loveluck

4:37PM GMT 04 Mar 2016

A senior Isil operative responsible for some of the group's most notorious atrocities, including the murder of Western journalists and aid workers, has been killed in Syria.

Amr al-Absi led the Mujahideen Shura Council, the first group to raise Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (Isil) notorious black flag in July 2012. He was later put in charge of the extremist group’s operations across Aleppo and appointed to a small council of advisers answering directly to its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The jihadist’s death, apparently in an air strike, was confirmed by the SITE Intelligence Group, alongside a photograph apparently showing his corpse. It was not clear which country was responsible for the air raid, or whether it took place during a recently enforced ceasefire on non-Isil held areas.

Under Absi’s watch, abduction on the road into Aleppo city became a grave risk for any Westerner who risked the journey.

The jihadist is understood to have overseen the kidnapping or purchase of a number of journalists and aid workers, among them the American reporter James Foley and British taxi driver Alan Henning, whose videotaped murders Emwazi would later become famous as ‘Jihadi John’.

He was arrested in Syria in 2007, where he spent years in the al-Qaeda wing of the notorious Sednaya prison. But he was released by Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, in June 2011, along with hundreds of other extremists, in what the regime's critics describe as a cynical attempt to turn a broad-based, moderate uprising into a jihadist insurrection.

Kyle Orton, an associate fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, described Absi as a “crucial” figure in Isil’s early development inside Syria, but said the group had grown strong enough to replace him with relative ease.

"I expect [he] will be replaced quickly and with minimal turbulence. Isil has highly-developed institutions and the individuals are largely expendable,” he said.